VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Chuck Carter - Army

I was a young 20-year-old first lieutenant serving as a Field Artillery Forward Observer for an Infantry Company in the Central Highlands of Vietnam as a member of the 4th Infantry Division.

I can't forget the many enemy deaths I saw caused by all of the artillery I was responsible for firing. I am especially haunted by actions of April 24, 1969, when I was forced to call fire on my own position to deny the enemy access to us and allow us an opportunity to withdraw from a superior force.

I also had been forced to become the acting company commander as all of the infantry officers were dead, and the thought of possibly killing my men still fills my dreams.

Learning from the New York Times newspaper of the attack on Song Be where my husband, Capt. Austin Miller, was. It took four days before he could make a call transferred from the Philippines to tell me he was alive and not wounded.

My best feel-good memory of the Vietnam War was whenever we had to go from Cu Chi base camp to a forward area, we would load up on C Rations so we could toss the food to village children as we passed through in the convoy.

VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

On Jan. 30, 1968, the eve of the Vietnamese New Year, we heard there would be a two-day cease fire. The Vietnamese would celebrate with family, feasting, fireworks, and were very careful about what they did on the first day. That day, all hell broke loose

VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Sometimes it all seems a dream or maybe a nightmare to have my 20th and 21st birthdays so far away with a brotherhood of pilots, crew chiefs, and the infantry that we carried or supported in our combat roles protecting other ground troops that came under fire.